It was a mixed weekend for the three West Yorkshire sides yet again, as Huddersfield Town won, Leeds United drew, and Bradford City lost.
Starting off at Huddersfield Town, and Nahki Wells inspired them to a 5-0 win at home to Barnsley, despite not getting on the scoresheet himself. Wells produced probably his best performance in a Town shirt, despite some criticisms before the game from a section of the Huddersfield support. Wells’ pass found Keith Southern just before the half hour mark, and Southern prodded the ball home to give the Terriers the lead. Another good Wells pass, just three minutes later, set up Danny Ward, before his hat-trick of assists was completed after 48 minutes, when Adam Hammill bundled the ball home. Town were awarded a penalty in the 58th minute when Wells was fouled, and Adam Clayton stepped up to make it 4-0 to the home side. The rout was completed just a few minutes from time, when Sean Scannell’s strike beat Luke Steele, from 20 yards out.
Leeds United drew 1-1 away at QPR, in an entertaining game. The home side came into the game in poor form, losing their last three games, and it looked like the perfect time for Leeds to snatch a victory at Loftus Road. Leeds won a penalty after 10 minutes, when Richard Dunne was adjudged to have brought down Ross McCormack in the box. However, the Leeds captain’s tame effort was saved by Robert Green, to keep the game goalless. McCormack made up for his effort shortly after, though, when his free-kick took a deflection off the QPR wall, and went into the back of the net. Leeds dominated most of the first half, but were somewhat unfortunate to go into the break level, when Jermaine Jenas scored just before half-time. The second half brought chances for both sides, but ultimately neither side could find a winner, and the draw leaves Leeds 12th in the Championship table.
Bradford City twice squandered leads, to lose 3-2 at home to Stevenage. The Bantams came into the game on the back of two consecutive wins, and looked like making that a third when Adam Reach got the hosts off to a flyer, with an impressive volley from the edge of the box. Francois Zoko equalised for the visitors on 23 minutes, but James Hanson, who has been in excellent form recently, scored on the rebound after 42 minutes to put City 2-1 up. Luke Freeman was outstanding for Stevenage, and his long-range effort after 65 minutes put the visitors on level terms. League One’s bottom side were producing a performance that belied their league standing, and Freeman struck again with a thunderbolt in the 87th minute to give the visitors all three points. Defeat for City sees them sit 11th in the League One table.
